Hey guys im on the market for my first tt bike, ive narrowed it down to 3 bikes, and i know it all comes down to which one fits me best but im just after some opinions from anyone that has either of these bikes, good and bad.im wanting to get fitted up at a shop for these bikes so and see which one feels best for me, i've got it down to a Specialized Shiv TT, Felt DA1 and Avant Chrono Evo II Team. ive read alot about the first two but not much about the Avanti, they look like a great bit of kit, looks and adjust ability wise. the shiv is one of the best looking tt bikes around in my opinion but also the felt is a definate looker.I've got a store near me that deals in Specialized but i don't know any in melbourne that stock Felt's as i haven't seen one in person yet only in pictures and what to see what they are like.Im fairly aggressive in my riding and prefer shorter distance fast riding rather then long haul distance riding and tend to mash away in higher gears so i would need a frame that won't flex all over the place.Any advice would be great

im new to the game toobut seeing that no one wants to reply and its a forum im gonna give it a shot myself. (and since you said ANY ADVICE would be great)

i dont own any of the bikes..so i cant really comment in terms of being an owner...but ive Bought a Quintana Roo CD01. and were looking at the above mentioned bikes also when shopping around.. but found that they were a bit too pricey.

both bikes you mentioned are approx 10,000k + ?

Not sure on how your circumstances as far as funds goes... eveyrone is different... you could be a millionaire and it wont matter. (a mate of mine makes approx 450,000k a year the lucky mofo... i see him with new cars all the time).

Anyhow, Both these bikes appear the samein my opinion the felt looks cheaper, even though the price is there.You may want to check whatever package that the stores offer on the advertisements. That the wheels in the picture is the wheels you really get.Alot of them show deep dish carbon rims but then you literally get cheaper wheels that arent deep dish.

I personally think the S-works SHIV looks very nice. (if this bike breaks i may consider the SHIV TT)

Have you considered other bikes Like the:

TREK Speed Concept 9Cervelo P5Orbea Ordu

i suggest reading some reviews online and seeing it in person... as it can look different in the flesh. as well as pics can be deceiving as a nice set of colourful deep dish carbon wheels can make a boring looking bike look glamourous.And also i tend not to really beleive what the manufacture really boast about.because how many times have you seen them advertise as "Fastest bike on the planet" "Most aerodyamic bike on the planet", "fastest compared to other competitors on the market"it just seems like marketing.Just like in the 'Wheels or Motor - magazines' where every family car... Commodore, Lantra, Accord, camry etc etc.. .seem to win a title "Car of the year award" every year... all the time. i mean... how many years in a year?!So you can only take thier word for it and choose something yourself.

Normally at that price range of 10k... you would expect integrated head stems, Shimano Di2 group set & Good set of wheels IMO

but to sum it up, what i personally did was,.. i was wanting to buy the TREK Speed Concept but as mentioned... a bit pricey at the deal that was going on at the local bike shop for about 9k ish... but im glad i settled for something cheaper and with that money... i ended up buying deep front rim, Disc wheel at the rear, Ceramic bearings, carbon crankset and Maxed out the components to Dura-Ace. Otherwise if i spent that much at the start.. i would have less to mod the bike with

You are talking about some nice bucks there and unless $ are not a problem there are more reasonably priced TT bikes around. i've got a Giant Trinity Composite 1 frame (entry level, and I was able to swing just getting a frame through Giant not the whole bike) which I have mainly SRAM Force gear on. I'm extremely happy with it.

Yes crazy people like me commute on them, but that is because 32km of my 38km commute is on a PSP that crosses a single road and it is excellent training for racing. The last 2km in the inner city is hell.

I assume you are already racing tris or TT now. If not, why invest big $ in a sport you don't know if you will enjoy it?

Even if you are racing tris or TTs now, but have never spent time on a TT bike, you are spending big big $ and assuming you can adapt to riding a TT bike.

I bought my hardly used Kuota Kaliber with DA7900 from an ironman, at about half what it cost him. Because he could not adapt to riding it and was doing faster times on his regular road bike.

It took me a lot of time to get my 16km TT time below the time I had ridden of my road bike.

My advice, if you can buy a cheaper 2nd hand TT bike, there are a lot of low mileage examples around from people who try the sport and don't like it or from those who do and upgrade.

If you like it and have money to spend get a good wheel set and a power meter, which you can take to you new bike when you do upgrade to a big $ bike when you need those marginally gains

Yes crazy people like me commute on them, but that is because 32km of my 38km commute is on a PSP that crosses a single road and it is excellent training for racing. The last 2km in the inner city is hell.

I assume you are already racing tris or TT now. If not, why invest big $ in a sport you don't know if you will enjoy it?

Even if you are racing tris or TTs now, but have never spent time on a TT bike, you are spending big big $ and assuming you can adapt to riding a TT bike.

I bought my hardly used Kuota Kaliber with DA7900 from an ironman, at about half what it cost him. Because he could not adapt to riding it and was doing faster times on his regular road bike.

It took me a lot of time to get my 16km TT time below the time I had ridden of my road bike.

My advice, if you can buy a cheaper 2nd hand TT bike, there are a lot of low mileage examples around from people who try the sport and don't like it or from those who do and upgrade.

If you like it and have money to spend get a good wheel set and a power meter, which you can take to you new bike when you do upgrade to a big $ bike when you need those marginally gains

How do u find the tri bikes uphill?Being new also I find them nasty.Particularly with disc wheel and 53/39t crank.

DoubleSpeeded wrote:How do u find the tri bikes uphill?Being new also I find them nasty.Particularly with disc wheel and 53/39t crank.

There are not a lot of hills where I live. A few short sharp climbs like 400m (AT) 7.5% from a tight corner, but nothing over a 1km. So1: I don't ride hills that often2: As they only decent climbs are 30kms away, I rather ride my road bike out there at tempo/endurance pace, do the climbs and ride back at tempo/endurance pace. I only ride my TT bike at 2 different paces: recovery or threshold (OK sometimes do VO2 max intervals). But 95% of the time I am either just tickling the pedals over or riding close to race pace. And neither are suited to riding to and from hill sessions.

I am still undecided about using my TT bike for the club's end of season hilly TT. I do not mind climbing on it, it is more the descents and last year it was held in a hailstorm. My bike handling and cornering on a TT bike sucks. If I am on a circuit course I usually get passed cornering.

My race wheels (for both bikes) are 60mm front, 50mm rear carbon clinchers, they are not that heavy, I will swap out the 60mm front when I road race on climbs or windy days, but for a TT it is always 60mm/50mm. They do get blown about and on my 2nd TT with my TT bike I managed to over correct from a wind gust, ended up on the gravel and decking it at 45kph.

This is because I live/race in the 3rd windiest city in the world (Perth). One of my usual races in summer in 16km TT, 8km into a 30kph gusting to 40kph head/cross wind and then 8km back with the same wind as a tail/cross wind.

I am currently running 52/44 11-23 set up which is good for most things I throw at it, including short climbs. I tend to ride at a much lower cadence on my TT bike than my road bike. Which is why I will look at increasing the size of my front chain ring from 52 to 54.

Still if I did the hilly TT I would use 52/39 and an 11-28 cassette I keep for hills rides

My advice to you is get a pair of training wheels, a light weight low profile set. Use them for training and get use to riding your TT bike without having to concentrate on keeping it upright in the wind. That is what I found to be mental sapping, having to concentrate all the time and keeping it upright, instead of learning to ride it.

Also if you are doing hilly TTs, practise with both the low profile and deep dish & disc and see what is best for you. Because depending on the course and your strength it may be more efficient (ie faster) to ride low profile and not discs on some courses.

DoubleSpeeded wrote:How do u find the tri bikes uphill?Being new also I find them nasty.Particularly with disc wheel and 53/39t crank.

There are not a lot of hills where I live. A few short sharp climbs like 400m (AT) 7.5% from a tight corner, but nothing over a 1km. So1: I don't ride hills that often2: As they only decent climbs are 30kms away, I rather ride my road bike out there at tempo/endurance pace, do the climbs and ride back at tempo/endurance pace. I only ride my TT bike at 2 different paces: recovery or threshold (OK sometimes do VO2 max intervals). But 95% of the time I am either just tickling the pedals over or riding close to race pace. And neither are suited to riding to and from hill sessions.

I am still undecided about using my TT bike for the club's end of season hilly TT. I do not mind climbing on it, it is more the descents and last year it was held in a hailstorm. My bike handling and cornering on a TT bike sucks. If I am on a circuit course I usually get passed cornering.

My race wheels (for both bikes) are 60mm front, 50mm rear carbon clinchers, they are not that heavy, I will swap out the 60mm front when I road race on climbs or windy days, but for a TT it is always 60mm/50mm. They do get blown about and on my 2nd TT with my TT bike I managed to over correct from a wind gust, ended up on the gravel and decking it at 45kph.

This is because I live/race in the 3rd windiest city in the world (Perth). One of my usual races in summer in 16km TT, 8km into a 30kph gusting to 40kph head/cross wind and then 8km back with the same wind as a tail/cross wind.

I am currently running 52/44 11-23 set up which is good for most things I throw at it, including short climbs. I tend to ride at a much lower cadence on my TT bike than my road bike. Which is why I will look at increasing the size of my front chain ring from 52 to 54.

Still if I did the hilly TT I would use 52/39 and an 11-28 cassette I keep for hills rides

My advice to you is get a pair of training wheels, a light weight low profile set. Use them for training and get use to riding your TT bike without having to concentrate on keeping it upright in the wind. That is what I found to be mental sapping, having to concentrate all the time and keeping it upright, instead of learning to ride it.

Also if you are doing hilly TTs, practise with both the low profile and deep dish & disc and see what is best for you. Because depending on the course and your strength it may be more efficient (ie faster) to ride low profile and not discs on some courses.

Thanks for your detailed reply nick.

I'm definitely considering a trainer. Since its winter here in aus, it's quite miserable outside and rainy periods to come.

My original crank was alloy- 52/38 & 105 - 12/25 cassette.

Since then I upped the crank to full carbon which the smallest was 53/39 .. And I find sometimes carbon is heavier but the shapes are made to be..(theoretically).. More aero dynamic.I changed the cassette to dura-ace but I should've compensated the cassette to an extra teeth for the more harder to pedal crank.